For Bush, Off-the-cuff Style Suits His Tv Image

With live satellite images darting between world capitals and political changes occurring between commercials, Bush fits into television technology;

he is attuned to the pace.

For eight years his former boss was hailed as the Great Communicator, the actor-president who understood the cinematic big picture and who strode across the White House stage reading his lines with flawless emotion.

But it is hard to imagine Ronald Reagan reacting with the spontaneity that has marked Bush in the last few years. Or telling a puzzled Ukrainian parliament, as Bush did last summer, ``I will shorten these remarks because our lives are controlled by satellites these days.``

The immediacy of satellite television has deeply affected diplomacy and domestic politics. It gives a sense of urgency to events and demands a leader who can respond quickly without prepared remarks.

Not since John F. Kennedy has the president been as comfortable with the media and especially with television. Bush uses television to project calm competence or tightly controlled anger. He is equally at ease talking on camera while jogging or aboard Air Force One.

Especially now, as he begins his re-election campaign, Americans will see Bush across the television channels, speaking about domestic problems and world affairs, as he did Wednesday night in his address to the nation on the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Call it ``non-political politics,`` said Republican National Committee Chairman Clayton Yeutter of Bush`s ability to perform on the tightrope of live television. ``He`s a master of that. And you see he`s campaigning. He`s not buying campaign ads but he`s campaigning with that and he`s doing it very, very skillfully.``

The benefits of being the incumbent are obvious. The president can command television`s attention at any moment, while his opponents must compete for air time or spend enormous sums of money on paid advertising.

``You get your message across at no cost because it simply becomes a part of day-to-day television programming activity. So first of all, it doesn`t cost you anything,`` Yeutter said.

``Secondly, it avoids whatever bias is attributed to paid television advertising, and it`s infinitely, infinitely more effective.``

Bush prefers the quickly scheduled briefing or news conference to the gilded trappings of the East Room because informal talks in the Oval Office or on a promontory overlooking the Grand Canyon play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses.

Internal White House polling and focus groups with television viewers show that Bush gets his best marks for his handling of those news conferences. A study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs last spring charted approval ratings for his first two years in office and compared them with Reagan`s. It found that Bush enjoyed his most favorable ratings when he was highly visible on national television during foreign crises, but when he spoke about domestic issues, the coverage and public perception of his performance tended to be more negative.

When he wants to send a presidential signal, Bush is apt to go in front of television cameras.

Hastily summoning reporters for a live news conference shortly before noon one day in September, he urged Congress to reject the entreaties of the thousand pro-Israel lobbyists who were making an end-run that day on Capitol Hill to get Congress to approve a $10 billion loan guarantee over Bush`s objections.

In a classic use of what Theodore Roosevelt described as the ``bully pulpit,`` Bush used his office and live television to attract attention and confront what he believed was against the national interest. He portrayed himself as a lonely little guy defending his policy against a big lobbying machine, and his pitch was timely and effective.

With issues that have both foreign and domestic impact, the challenge is to transmit the desired message to each audience. There were times during the Persian Gulf conflict that the White House did not want to put the same message out to everybody. It was important domestically that Bush not seem bent on war or warmongering, but at the same time he had to be credible to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

``He wanted to be a man of peace at home and a man of war abroad,``

recalls ABC correspondent Brit Hume, noting that in the end that was simply impossible.

Bush`s personal appearance on camera has become expected, especially on foreign affairs. His absence makes the U.S. position appear a little more tentative.

``When the president goes down there (the briefing room) it`s flashed around the world. All the leaders they can hear it for themselves, they can assess his tone, they can assess his mood, they can assess his earnestness, they can put things in context. It`s much better to do it that way,`` said Ed Rogers, a former White House aide.